Friday, September 23, 2011

Former supporter's malpractice lawsuit against Tom Emmer dismissed in Wright County

By Karl Bremer

The remaining claims in a malpractice lawsuit filed against
2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer by a former friend and supporter
were dismissed by Wright County District Judge Stephan Halsey September 14.

The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 21, 2010, in the heat of last year’s gubernatorial
campaign, by Steven R. Hackbarth and his roofing contracting company, Hackbarth
Enterprises Corporation, both of Silver Lake, MN.
Ripple in Stillwater broke the story two weeks later, and it created a firestorm
among Emmer’s supporters, who accused Hackbarth of trying to extort money from
Emmer to avoid a messy pre-election lawsuit.

Emmer represented Hackbarth in a 2009 legal proceeding that
resulted in a judgment against Hackbarth and cost him his state contractor’s
license. According to Hackbarth, one of his roofing materials suppliers sued
him in 2009 over money the supplier claimed Hackbarth owed him.

“People charged my account with the supplier and they weren’t supposed to,” Hackbarth
told Ripple in Stillwater last year.
“I was disputing that with my supplier, so I asked Emmer to represent me. But
he didn’t file the documents he was supposed to file with the court. He showed
up the day of the hearing,” but beyond that, Hackbarth said, “he didn’t do
nothing.”

According to Hackbarth, Emmer botched his case. He said Emmer only filed
discovery papers in the lawsuit a week before the hearing, and failed to
properly file other court documents. Hackbarth said he couldn’t reach an
agreement with his supplier to pay back the money the supplier claimed he was
owed since “our money was all tied up because of our house burning down” in
March 2009.

He lost the case with his supplier, and as a result of the judgment against
him, the state Department of Labor and Industry revoked his
contractors license in May of this year and levied a $10,000 fine against him,
$8,000 of which was stayed.

At one point, Emmer tried to link Hackberth’s 2009 house
fire to his innocence in the malpractice lawsuit.

“The circumstances surrounding the fire have been called into question by the
fire inspection report,” Emmer wrote in asking a judge to dismiss the case.
“Additionally, other circumstances regarding the fire at Hackbarth's home will
be divulged if this litigation survives ... as the facts of the fire are
necessary to establish the absence of fault in (Emmer’s) defense of this
baseless action.”

Emmer campaign spokesman Carl Kuhl charged that “While Mr.
Hackbarth denies political motivation, he made outrageous financial demands
prior to filing his suit in the hope of leveraging Tom Emmer's candidacy to
advantage himself. Tom Emmer does not negotiate with extortionists.”

Schwartz claimed Hackbarth sought more than $200,000 to settle the case.

The personal claims of Stephen Hackbarth were dismissed by Halsey on January 4, 2011. The claims dismissed last week were those of Hackbarth’s roofing business.

In his dismissal of the remaining claims last week, Judge
Halsey cited Hackbarth’s failure to provide sufficient expert testimony in his
malpractice lawsuit as required by law, along with other deficiencies in his claims.

After he filed the lawsuit, Hackbarth told Ripple in Stillwater
that Emmer had represented him in previous legal matters, and that he’d been a
longtime supporter of Emmer’s past political campaigns.

“If he would have just apologized, it probably never would have come to this,”
said Hackbarth. “I pulled floats for him in parades for years. I have a John
Deere tractor. My daughter has a goat, and we’d put a sandwich board on the
goat with Emmer signs. And now all I got was kicked in the head. I thought he
was my friend.”

Emmer’s lawyer Schwartz said today that “Tom is an
outstanding attorney who had, and now again, has an unblemished record of
providing zealous and ethical representation on behalf of his clients … It’s
good that you’ve got a lawyer who’s both zealous and ethical. Some lawyers lack
in either or both.”

Judge Halsey did not grant Emmer an award for attorney’s
fees and costs associated with defending the matter. Schwartz said "We are not going to be pursuing costs aginst him."

Emmer took his Tea Party politics to the airwaves following
his defeat by DFLer Mark Dayton in the 2010 election. He's been mentioned as a possible candidate for Minnesota's 6th Congressional District depending on what the district's current placeholder Michele Bachmann decides to do.

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Ripple in Stillwater

Ripple in Stillwater is the sole creation of Stillwater, Minnesota, writer Karl Bremer. It covers whatever captures the author's muse at the moment. You can reach Ripple in Stillwater at saintcroix-at-aol-dot-com, or you can follow me on Twitter @kdbremer. If you're wondering about the name of this blog, go here.

Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists 2011 Page One Award Winner

Ripple in Stillwater author Karl Bremer won Second Place in the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists 2011 Page One Awards for "Best Use of Public Records."

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